Let’s be honest, very few among us take Rishabh Pant seriously.

Whenever you watch him on the cricket field, be it during his batting or keeping wickets, it is as if it’s a packet of potato chips with legs that’s inviting you to snack on it. He is to be blamed for that. With almost always a smile hanging on his face and the stump microphone relaying to us his weird takes on everything cricket and beyond, he appears a tasty experience. But like junk food, tradionalists would advise you to not take him seriously.

For most of his eight-year-old career in International cricket, that has perhaps been the common take on Pant. He always had the gift of talent, but it seemed he lacked in seriousness as a cricketer, as a batter, and so people were sceptical. However, there has been a shift from that line of thinking in recent times.

“There’s a lot of science in that madness, the way that he plays,” said former England captain Michael Vaughan on the Stick to Cricket show.

Sachin Tendulkar, while dissecting Pant’s falling paddle sweep, wrote on X: “Rishabh’s falling paddle sweep is not accidental. It is intentional and extremely clever. Going down with the shot allows him to get under the ball and scoop it over leg slip with control.”

Pant may be unconventional in the way he approaches his cricket, but he has his game sorted. A method to madness, they say. He will do things his way and the team will benefit from his presence, though not always. But that holds true for any sportsperson.

Ravichandran Ashwin admires Pant’s craft, but feels that he should try and convert his 130s into 200s. “I sometimes feel if I was Gautam Gambhir, I would take him aside and tell him, ‘you played exceptionally well and I would have loved to be the batter with the ability that you have’ but can I request you to make a double hundred next time when you are batting at 130, because you know the lower order cannot contribute much,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel.

Herein lies the problem. Yes, the world would love to see Pant score a double hundred. But head coach Gambhir taking him aside and asking him to do so because the lower order lacks runs seems to be a bad idea. If you put it that way to him, you are basically saying that he should bat in a different way. Is that necessary?

Look at Pant’s numbers in Tests. He averages almost 45 in the longest format, has scored most of his runs away from home and has more centuries than any other keeper-batter has ever got for India. Leave all that, the guy has more hundreds in England alone than Sunil Gavaskar and Virat Kohli. He has won the team matches from unbelievable situations and promises to do so many more times in the future. So why would you want to disturb his game?

Ashwin, of course, has said what he has said in the best interests of the team. And it is only normal for someone to expect more from a person with Pant’s talent. But perhaps it is wiser not to tamper with a successful formula just because there is a possibility of greater returns. Remember the case of Irfan Pathan? How, from being a left-arm pace sensation in the Wasim Akram mould, he lost it all while trying to become a better all-rounder?

Fact is, it is never a wise idea to restrict or restrain Pant from being himself. He is like a river, you have to let it flow. Pant is his own boss. It’s not that he doesn’t understand things the way others do, it’s just that he tries to solve them in his own unique way. In the Leeds Test, on the stump microphone, he was often heard scolding or checking himself.

Not always are the results great. It was not long ago that Pant was trying to reverse-sweep his way out of off-form in the IPL without any rhyme or reason. Or so it seemed. In his head, things perhaps were aligning themselves differently. And when everything fell in place inside his mental space, he smashed a 118 not out off 61 balls. So what if it was the last match of the season for his team, the Lucknow Super Giants? See how unstoppable he has been ever since that innings.

Like his shots, his actions are also not predictable. After his second century at Headingley, everyone, including Sunil Gavaskar, expected him to do his acrobatic flip in
celebration. Gavaskar even gestured to him from the stands to do it, but Pant turned it down with a smile. That’s Pant, it’s futile to bind him expectations.

Instead, note what a Pant can do to a Gavsakar, a man who has won greater battles against greater teams. The legendary batter was utterly childish in his expression of joy that Pant’s batting gifted him. It is the same Gavaskar who had shouted “stupid, stupid, stupid” while doing commentary after Pant had thrown his wicket away in the fourth Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year. It is this paradox that defines Pant. Even he doesn’t know what emotion he would evoke in you. So if you had cursed him for being the costliest flop of the IPL a month back, the same you would now have to bow in admiration.

For a man who does gymnastics on a cricket field with pads on and who still likes to hit a six to reach his hundred even after he has fallen seven times in the 90s, rules are not fun. But then, the same man can easily be crowned the Ambassador of Test cricket in the post-Virat Kohli era.

When a player marries mastery and mystery so perfectly, he is either a genius or Rishabh Pant. You may not take him seriously, but he is serious about his game. Who said serious cannot be fun?